Latest Peaceful Palestinian Poll: 4% oppose terror!

A recent poll released by Bir-Zeit University:

19. As to funding the Palestinian National Authority, which one of these two directions do you support?
1) Hamas continues to reject recognizing Israel, while reaching out to countries like Iran and the Arab world to get funding	60.8%
2) Hamas recognizes Israel and continue to receive funding from the international community	31.0%
Do you support the following statement: 37. Commitment to resistance with a focus in the occupied territories.
1) Yes	83.4%
2) To some extent	12.6%
3) No	4%
42. Do you support or oppose that the (Prisoners’ Declaration) be the basis for a national unity program?
1) Support	81.1%
2) Oppose	13.0%

Now, one might be surprised that the same people who do not want to recognize Israel in question 19 overwhelmingly support the "prisoners' declaration" which the media has portrayed as "implicitly" recognizing Israel in question 42.

The answer is obvious - nowhere does the "prisoner's declaration" recognize Israel except in the fevered minds of wire service reporters. As has been very well documented by Honest Reporting and Israel Matzav, the entire initiative is a smokescreen that the wishful thinkers of the West are more than happy to pretend is a breakthrough.

The poll result that will not make the mainstream media at all is the fact that only 4% of Palestinian Arabs reject terror altogether. The question is ambiguously worded, but what is entirely clear is that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs want to see continued attacks against Jewish civilians (what is euphemistically called "resistance.")

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French Black anti-Semitism - not only a Muslim issue

A scary piece of real reporting, from City Journal:

The Wrath of Ka

Black anti-Semites storm Paris’s old Jewish quarter.

by Nidra Poller
6 June 2006

On the last Sunday of May, 30 angry black men stormed into the heart of the old Jewish quarter, terrorizing residents, shopkeepers, and Sunday strollers. The self-styled militia of the Ka Tribe, a black separatist group originally connected to the no-longer funny black comic Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, embodied the worst fears of a Jewish community exposed, since January 2006, to a new rise in anti-Semitic attacks.

Three months after the torture-murder of Ilan Halimi, the intimidating incursion of the Ka militia into the narrow “Jewish” street of the Marais looks like an ominous sign of worse to come. The Ka Tribe is the lunatic fringe of a broad anti-Semitic movement originally inspired by Dieudonné, who has become a hero to a segment of black French society by focusing resentment on Jews. But Dieudonné, with a French mother and Cameroonian father, was not black enough for Stellio Capochichi, the Tribe’s leader, whose origins are Haitian and Ivoirian.

A self-serving interview with the college-educated leader, who calls himself Fara (pharaoh) Kemi Saba, appeared on the Ka website until the government shut it down two days after the rue des Rosiers incursion. Deftly manipulating the terms and gestures of French intellectual discourse, Kemi Saba, flanked by two husky bodyguards, lays out his latter-day ideology of “negritude,” a rehash of the worst of Cheikh Anta Diop, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, born-again Africanism, and Malcolm X, served up with the nastiness of the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam. Though Kemi Saba preaches total separation from leucodermes (anything less than 100 percent pure blacks) and rejects both Christianity and Islam, he has a soft spot for Islamism. In a communiqué attacking “Sarkkkozy the Jew,” the Fara’s spokesman lashes out at “[whites] who make caricatures of the prophet of Islam.”

Kemi Saba’s resentment is all-embracing: the injustice that rankles him began with the very origins of humanity. The kémites (the term replaces leucoderm words like blacks, Africans, or Antilleans) are the true chosen people, destined to rule the world. Victims of oppression of mythical proportions, they will liberate themselves by returning to original sources of spirituality and social organization. Ka males—medzatones—are noble warriors; the females—Aset—are sublime beauties and perfect mothers; the children learn to be true kémites in the “School of Hor” (Horus).

Eyewitnesses concur about the incursion: 30 men in paramilitary formation stormed into rue des Rosiers, shouting threats and insults against Jews. Some wore boxer’s mouthpieces and leather gloves with brass knuckles. They burned with anger and itched for a fight. Frantic calls to the police met with laconic replies: “Yes, we have been informed.”

The men stomped and shouted for what seemed an endless 20 minutes. People who had seen the interview with Kemi Saba on the Ka website recognized him, protected by his bodyguards and visibly directing the operation according to plan. Some shopkeepers lowered their metal shutters as soon as they saw the hostile group round the corner at rue Vieille du Temple and march into rue des Rosiers. Others took people into their fragile boutiques. Men, women, and children felt totally defenseless, delivered up to a storm of uncontrollable rage. Some witnesses report seeing baseball bats, sticks, knives; others suspected their presence under thick black jackets; all believed that these men were capable of committing a massacre. The police did not come until the militia had left. They did collar some members of the group later, close to their Belleville headquarters; they questioned and released them.

The capture of Youssouf Fofana—leader of the gang of barbarians accused of the torture-murder of Ilan Halimi—and his extradition from the Ivory Coast had provoked the Ka’s wrath. They sent a message to various Jewish groups and individuals, threatening to kill other Jews if anyone dared to touch a hair on Fofana’s head; it has circulated on the Web since late February. Another communiqué warns interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy of dire consequences if Fofana does not get a fair trial. Can he possibly get a fair trial from a “leucoderm” court? Can he be guilty in the eyes of kémites?

Veiled threats led to aggressive action even before the incursion as the Ka went after real or imagined members of Betar (a group that provides security for Jewish events) and the Jewish Defense League, accused of persecuting blacks and Muslims who penetrate their turf—rue des Rosiers—and beating up kémites during the memorial march for Ilan Halimi. On May 19, the Ka militia stormed a gym in the 9th arrondissement, looking for Betar and Jewish Defense League “strongmen.” There they terrorized kids (non-Jewish ones, as it happened) who were learning an Israeli martial art. The Ka packaged the rue des Rosiers incursion as a pre-arranged showdown with the “Zionist extremists” and announced a knockout victory—because the “extremists” didn’t show up.

This fantasized warfare is no less outlandish than the esoteric Ka mythology, built around worship of Aton, a smattering of hieroglyphics, and imitation of Jewish identity. The French government has tolerated the Ka for years, but their hero worship of Fofana, the increasingly vehement threats against Interior Minister Sarkozy, and, now, this show of force in the Jewish quarter has provoked signs of severity. The interior minister visited the rue des Rosiers this Wednesday to show his support and promise results. He has called for a criminal investigation and eventual dissolution of the group. Greeted in Montfermeil with shouts of anger, he found himself welcomed to the Marais with hurrahs and “Sarkozy for President.”

Outside the ORT school, where the minister met with residents, a dapper gray-haired shop owner said, with dignified regret, “It’s over for Jews in France.” And added, “The police told me . . . they said it’s over for us . . . they can’t handle this problem. . . . It’s too late.”

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Who will be the Sderot sacrifice?

Seven Kassam rockets hit Sderot yesterday and, miraculously, no one has died in the latest barrage, even though some hit houses.

It is inevitable that one day the miracles will run out and people will die in Sderot from Kassam attacks. And it is inevitable that Israel will respond with a small-scale ground operation to Gaza followed by a quick withdrawal. And it is inevitable that there will be more rocket attacks, and soon Kassams will be replaced with Katyushas. And it is inevitable that Israel will have to go back into Gaza more permanently to stop these inevitable attacks.

The only problem is, Israel seems to want to wait until some of her citizens are dead first.

Even though the motives of the scum launching the rockets are identical to the motives of suicide bombers - to kill as many Jews as possible. Even though the PA has not the slightest interest in stopping the terror.

Still, Israel is responding with the occasional assassination and lots of tough words, rather than taking care of the problem in the only way it will be taken care of anyway. Inevitably.

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New JBlog aggregator

JBlogsphere.net (notice the spelling!) is a new aggregator page like JRants and Jewish Blogging. One nifty feature is the ability to mouse-over a posting and read part of the post.

Of course, the bad news is that some people can read this post without going to my site and I don't get any hits...

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The Refugees of Zer'in

During Israel's War of Independence, the Palestine Post published occasional dispatches from Dorothy Bar-Adon called "Emek Diary" showing the human side of the war from her perspective.

In this amazing article, Bar-Adon describes the close relationships between her village's Jews and the Arabs of Zer'in (now Jezreel), who lived in a town overlooking much of the valley. The town's strategic position made it ideal for shelling and sniping at the Jewish villages below, and for months the Jews lived in fear of being shot in their houses or fields.

An Iraqi general and his troops arrived in Zer'in and built up fortified positions to attack from. It is unclear when exactly the residents of Zer'in left the town; most of them apparently left when the Iraqis arrived and before the Jews conquered the hill. But as this article makes clear, the Israeli soldiers could hear the Arab women of the village - neighbors and friends of the Jews in years past - shout out war cries during the first unsuccessful attempt to take the town.

Bar-Adon shows that she is in a position to be far more sympathetic to the Palestinian Arab refugees of Zer'in than the international community who were (and still are) insisting on allowing the Arabs to return: she knew them intimately, she celebrated happy times with them, she ate with them. But, as she explains, to allow Arabs to go back to Zer'in is unthinkable, knowing that they chose their sides, they waxed lyrically hoping and expecting the deaths of hundreds of Jews around Zer'in, and that they would choose sides again against the Jews if they are given a chance.

(See Palestine Post-ings for a larger version of the article.)

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Aw, isn't he cute?

A Palestinian child holds a weapon during a a demonstration in support of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A very large list of similar photos can be found at LGF.

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Latest Hamas "truce" news

Just another link to send brain-dead reporters and editors who insist on claiming that Hamas is holding by a truce:

From Ha'Aretz:

Hamas operatives in the West Bank have experimented with adding toxic chemicals to their bombs, security sources told Haaretz Monday.

The organization also is amassing large stocks of explosives so operatives will be ready to launch attacks immediately should its leadership decide to end the security "lull," the sources added.

Currently, Hamas' West Bank cells are focusing mainly on buying arms, training operatives, setting up explosives factories and conducting experiments. However, a few cells - mainly in the southern West Bank, around Hebron and Bethlehem - are continuing to carry out small-scale attacks. These cells are only loosely connected to the organization's leadership in Damascus and Gaza, and as long as they keep a relatively low profile and do not claim responsibility for their attacks in Hamas' name, the leadership does not interfere. One such cell was arrested early this year after murdering six Israeli civilians near Gush Etzion and Hebron.

In Gaza, Hamas operatives often assist attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. The rockets fired at Sderot last week, for instance, were made by Hamas, and "rebellious" members of the organization helped launch them. The Shin Bet security service also accused senior Hamas operatives of having helped the Popular Resistance Committees prepare a attack in April at the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. That plan was foiled by PA security personnel.

There is also one type of attack to which Hamas' leadership has given its unequivocal blessing: attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians for use in negotiations over the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

The Shin Bet and police arrested a senior Hamas operative in Ramallah two weeks ago who was responsible for planning several "mega-attacks." The arrest was made public Monday.

Ibrahim Hamed heads Hamas' military wing in the West Bank. His planned attacks included attempts to blow up railway tracks and an attempted bombing of the Pi Glilot gas storage facility.

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Kudos to the IZW Cartoon Division

Prosecutors launched a criminal investigation Monday of two Azerbaijani newspapers that published collages featuring the heads of Iran's spiritual leaders placed on the bodies of two dogs.

The collages appeared just weeks after a caricature published in an Iranian newspaper, depicting Azeris as cockroaches, sparked deadly riots among Azeris in Iran.

The images, published in the newspapers 'Gun' and 'New Fakt' last week, also prompted an official protest from the Iranian Embassy, which called them offensive and blamed the United States and Israel.

'Such a move serves the dirty intentions and unlawful goals of America and its Zionist allies and is intended to promote division between religions, faiths and ethnic groups, as well as in the unity of the Islamic world,' the embassy said in a statement.

The Cartoon Division of the World Media Section of the International Zionist Web was once considered a place for slackers to relax and shoot spitballs at the Sports and Hollywood divisions, but ever since late last year the Cartoon Elders have stepped up to the plate and done their fair share around here. Kudos!

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Flaming hoop jumping, explained

I was always curious about why Palestinian Arab terrorists/policemen spend so much time practicing jumping through flaming hoops:


It finally hit me! It isn't, as I conjectured in February, that the "policemen" were staring a circus to cheer up the poor Palestinian Arab children and alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

But the real answer can be seen in another picture, variants of which have been published many dozens of times (כן ירבו):


Notice the relative sizes of the flaming hoops and the burnt out car window.

Palestinian Arab "police" are pursuing a skill that is very practical and much in demand in the territories: they need to practice quickly jumping out of the windows of flaming cars!

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Just your ordinary terrorist

In today's Newark Star-Ledger is an amazing article about the Gaza economy that effectively sympathizes with a terrorist:

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip -- Silhouetted by the late afternoon sun, a lone family of Palestinian bathers gathers around a table at Ibrahim's beach café to sip tea against the backdrop of the shimmering Mediterranean.

The scene easily could have been lifted from a marketing pamphlet for an exotic beach resort. But Ibrahim's actually is located in Shirat Hayam, a former Israeli settlement, and the beach is surrounded by rubble where militant squatters make their own law.

The beach had been off limits to Palestinians before Israel ended a four-decade occupation of Gaza in September. Now, a strip of Spartan yet rustic cafés like Ibrahim's has sprung up in anticipation of a busy summer.

"We are hopeful that the coffee shops will be crowded," says Sabri el Khidra, the 48-year old owner of Ibrahim's and a local militia leader who plunked about $15,000 into the renovation. "There are a lot of plans to make this a tourist area and to make Khan Younis the most beautiful beach in Gaza."

The reporter, Joshua Mitnick, is quick to describe his ideas of the source of the problems with building the Gaza economy:

The problems here begin with economic isolation and the desperation it has spawned.

Bracing for cross-border attacks, Israel's military has sealed key commercial crossings and lobbed thousands of tank shells into Gaza. At the same time, the refusal of Hamas (the country's ruling party) to recognize Israel after taking power in March has brought a suspension of international aid.

Nowhere does Hamas' and other Palestinian Arab terror aims have any part of the equation. Israel's closure of crossings is described in the active voice; everything else is in passive voice. No responsibility for Gaza's problems is ascribed to those that practice or advocate terror.

After talking about the "success" of turning Jewish schools into a branch of Al-Aqsa University, Mitnick concludes:

Still, Ibrahim's owner, el Khidra, is hopeful the financial crisis will end soon. He even believes tourists one day might discover Gaza.

"I am prepared to protect any tourist that comes here," he boasts.

Almost any tourist. Israelis, as el Khidra points out in a stark reminder of how little things really have changed, won't ever be welcome here.

"If I could get inside (their country) today and blow myself up, I would do it."

So in paragraph 30 of this long story, we find out that the person that the reporter is profiling as a bright shining star in rebuilding Gaza is in fact a would-be mass murderer.

An article that could have emphasized that terrorists are running Gaza instead implies that Gazan terrorists are just ordinary people who want to build up their country despite Israel's and international pressure.

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The Palestinian Arab people's responsibilities

In comments on this posting, VJ claimed that I was demonizing Palestinian Arabs. Although that was not my intent, to an extent he is right, and while perhaps I was not as careful in my wording as I should have been, it got me to thinking about the actual responsibility that Palestinian Arab people (rather than their leaders) have towards a peaceful Middle East.

I strongly feel that nations and peoples have a mass psychology similar to individuals. Sometimes they coincide with their leaders' psyches, sometimes not. These psyches can change over time but it is usually a slow process. Understanding global patterns and knowing how to act properly in any given situation depends on knowing how all the players think and are likely to react, and a fatal mistake that global leaders often make is the assumption that people are all the same and would all act the same way that their own people would.

In a previous posting, I laid out my analysis of the Palestinian Arabs' psyche:

Arab people just want to raise their families with dignity and pride.

The entire brief history of the Palestinian Arabs shows this to be true. The ones who lived in Palestine in the 1800s didn't care that they were under Ottoman rule, they didn't crave independence. After the Jews started coming in serious numbers and the economy boomed, many (I believe most) of the ancestors of today's Palestinian Arabs moved into Palestine from Syria and Jordan, because that was how they could best provide for their families. More moved in under British rule than under Ottoman rule, because economic concerns were far more important than political concerns.

If "independence" was the uppermost concern of Arabs, then why do over a million choose to stay in Israel rather than move to PA-administered areas? As the Clinton team famously observed, "it's the economy, stupid."

The people who have screwed the Palestinian Arabs the most have always been their "leaders." It was their leaders who decided to force them to boycott Jewish goods to their detriment, it was their leaders who kept them in "refugee" camps, it was their leaders who forced them to fight losing battles against the hated Zionists.

The "golden age" of Palestinian Arabs was during the "occupation" - this was when they had good paying jobs, when Israel built them an electrical and safe water infrastructure, when the Zionists used their devious Jewish expertise to dramatically increase the Palestinian Arab life expectancy and slash their infant mortality rates. During Oslo, tens of thousands of Jordanians moved illegally into the West Bank so they could raise their families in the comparative paradise that Israel built for the Palestinian Arabs.

The ordinary Palestinian doesn't care who his leader is or about Zionism or occupation or terror or democracy as long as his basic needs are met.

This is the background needed to understand the Hamas victory.

While I still largely believe this to be true, I did not mention a strong component to the current Palestinian Arab psyche: the effect of decades of government-controlled, institutionalized hate speech against Israel and Jews. Years of blaming Jews for every problem, as well as years of telling people that they should live in a welfare state and that they are owed jobs, money and a country, will have a slow but cumulative effect. Palestinian Arabs are slowly turning from the most creative, ambitious and hard-working of all the Arab people into whining babies. (It is no coincidence that when they were in daily contact with Jews and Westerners was when they have traditionally acted the most maturely.)

Given all this, given the cards they have been dealt by their leaders, by other Arab leaders and by Israelis, what are the Palestinian Arab people's responsibilities? How should they be acting?

No matter what one's situation, one must act like a moral, mature and responsible human being. Growing up in a terror environment no more justifies becoming a terrorist than growing up in a crackhouse justifies becoming a criminal. It may be harder but ultimately we must be held responsible for our own decisions. This is basic.

While I do not believe that the Palestinian people voted Hamas in power because of Hamas' desire to create a Jew-free Middle East, they are in the end responsible for that result. They were aware of Hamas' goals even if that was not the primary factor in their decision to choose Hamas.

If a US state would elect a governor who is a KKK member and who advocates racist laws, even if the people elected him on a "law and order" platform, we would do everything we could to blunt the effect of that election - legally, economically and socially. We would expect boycotts of that state's products, we would expect conventions to move to other states, we would expect the federal government to pass laws to counteract any state laws the governor manages to pass, we would expect ordinary people to react with disgust and horror. Some of these actions would inevitably hurt the people of that state and in the end that is wholly appropriate.

The Palestinian Arabs should be ashamed that the bigoted and murderous Hamas ended up in power. One does not discern any sense of shame, however.

So the first responsibility is to treat a genocidal terrorist group as pariahs and not as heroes.

There is another choice that Palestinian Arabs have: whether to remain pawns in the power plays of their leaders, or to actually work to build their state and their economy.

I mentioned here that Israel's existence was no more certain in 1946 than Arab Palestine's is today, and the circumstances that the Jews lived under were quite difficult. Even so, individually and without a central quasi-governmental plan, they built universities, they built industries, they started projects that would take years to bear fruit. A people who want to be treated as an equal among other nations must act as if they deserve that status - and if they need handouts to reach that goal, the handouts should come from their own people before they demand it from the world.

In other words, their second responsibility is to build things unilaterally, not destroy them.

This posting is already going on longer than I expected, but I must mention that there are many other responsibilities that Palestinian Arabs should be taking on but on a whole are not: protecting their children from violence and from indoctrination into terror groups, teaching tolerance for other people, protesting against the culture of death, protesting against honor killings, stopping the hero worship of terrorists. The lack of responsible actions on the "street" is not the fault of their leaders, but of the people themselves. Until one sees public protests that are against violence and for acting responsibly, until one sees a huge groundswell from the people and from their press to act like responsible human beings, it is not unreasonable to criticize the Palestinian Arabs themselves.

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European support for Palestinian Arabs "crashing"

From the Jerusalem Post:

New public opinion surveys conducted among "opinion elites" in Europe show that support for the Palestinians has fallen precipitously, according to a leading international pollster, Stan Greenberg, who has been briefing Israeli leaders on his findings in the past few days. There has not necessarily been "a rush to Israel" but there has been a "crash" in backing for the Palestinians, he noted.

Greenberg told The Jerusalem Post that the shifts in attitudes reflected in the surveys were so dramatic that he "redid" some of the polls to ensure there had been no error.

He singled out France as the country where attitudes had changed most dramatically. Three years ago, 60 percent of French respondents said they took a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and of that 60%, four out of five backed the Palestinians. Today, by contrast, 60% of French respondents did not take a side in the conflict, and support for the Palestinians had dropped by half among those who did express a preference.

Greenberg said the figures were still being finalized, and so did not go into further details. But shifts such as these, he said, represented "an incredible pace of change," with significant consequences.

The Intifada combined with the Hamas victory in the elections has come close to ending Europe's love affair with Palestinian Arabs. Add to the mix the clear support among Palestinian Arabs for Al Qaeda, for the bombing attacks in London and Madrid, for Saddam Hussein and for Iran, and the Europeans are slowly realizing that they are backing people who want them dead.

Interestingly, this is not translating yet into support for Israel. Changing the anti-Israel attitudes will take much longer.

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Israel develops a second active protection system

From Defense Update.com, hat tip to Epaminondas.

Showing yet again who the good guys are.

Iron Fist Active Protection System (APS) Israel Military Industries (IMI)

In Eurosatory 2006 IMI is unveiling its new Active Defense System (ADS) called - Iron Fist. Until recently, the development of Iron Fist was shrouded in secrecy, as it was developed in parallel to a different Israeli developed ADS system - RAFAEL's Trophy, which entered full scale development in 2005. However, due to rapid development pace and successful testing, IMI expects to deliver the first systems for IDF testing and qualifications by mid 2007. Unlike competing systems, IMI's Iron Fist can be installed on light vehicles, including trucks and even Humvees, offering effective protection from RPGs. IMI conducted extensive testing against a full spectrum of threats, engaging various types of threats from stationary and moving armored personnel carriers. The system already demonstrated effective protection of light vehicles and heavy armored vehicles, from small rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles and tank rounds equipped with shaped charge warheads as well as advanced kinetic threats (armor piercing tank rounds). The system uses a fixed radar sensor, mounted on the protected platform, to detect potential threats, measure distance and trajectory, providing the fire control system with data for calculates engagement plans. When a threat is identified as imminent, an explosive projectile interceptor is launched toward it. The interceptor, shaped similar to a small mortar bomb, is designed to defeat the threat even when flying in very close proximity. Unlike other systems, the Iron Fist uses only the blast effect to defeat the threat, crushing the soft components of a shaped charge or deflecting and destabilizing the missile or kinetic rod in their flight. The interceptor is made of combustible envelope, fully consumed in the explosion. Without the risk of shrapnel, Iron Fist provides an effective, close-in protection for vehicles operating in dense, urban environment. The use of close proximity, rather than "hit to kill" mechanism avoids complex interception techniques and contributes to reduced cost. One of the main advantages of the Iron Fist is its integration into routine operations. Its sensor provides essential input to situational awareness systems, based on ground radar surveillance, moving target detection, classification and tracking and motion detection. Furthermore, by loading other types of projectiles, such ass non lethal, anti-personnel, smoke or illumination, the system can be used in support of routine operation. Iron Fist is supported by Israel's MOD Defense Research & Development Directorate (DRDD). The program is designed to protect medium and light vehicles, but based on its performance, has the potential to be fielded on heavy armor as well. In future configurations, the system has a growth potential to protect sensitive elements of fixed installations or patrol boats, protecting from RPG attacks, frequently encountered in counter insurgency operations.

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Where kids are worth more dead than alive

In a twisted but not surprising story in today's Jerusalem Post:

A group of Palestinian children were sent towards the Gaza Strip border fence holding toy guns on Thursday in order to test the vigilance of the soldiers on duty.

From a distance, troops noticed four apparently armed Palestinians approaching the border north of the Kissufim crossing.

When the four were some 400 meters from the fence, the soldiers realized that they were children, who looked to be about 13 years of age, and that their guns were toys.

This is not the first time that Palestinian Arabs cynically played with their children's lives.

But in the sick world of the Palestinian Arab psyche, it makes sense. As has been pointed out many times, the actions of these Arabs are completely inconsistent with building a state and completely consistent with destroying Israel.

Dead kids that can be blamed on Israel get media attention, putting pressure on Israelis to be more careful as they try to come up with better ways to defend their own lives as well as the lives of Palestinian children. The mileage that Palestinian Arabs can get out of a dead kid (or pretend dead kid) can be enormous. Combine that with the culture of death that permeates the territories and you have a paradoxical situation:

Palestinian Arabs have a vested interest in having their kids be killed by Israel, and Israel has a vested interest in keeping Palestinian Arab kids as safe as possible.

So Israel spends more time and money and effort in protecting Palestinian Arab children than the Arabs do.

This reason alone demolishes the "argument" that far-left and pro-terror websites use that Israel is practicing genocide against Palestinian Arabs. Forgetting that Israel actually has some morals, unlike its enemies, even if Israel wanted every Arab kid dead she wouldn't do anything about it because it only ends up hurting Israel.

And yet, even when the two sides of a conflict have such diametrically different views of morality, the world insists on being "even-handed" in dealing with the conflict.

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Ha'aretz' Shavuot present to Arabs: the Kotel

In an editorial that is ridiculously far-far-left even by al-Ha'aretz' standards, the esteemed publication advocates Israel giving up all of the Old City of Jerusalem:

Israel is having trouble formulating a logical and consistent stance with regard to East Jerusalem, and therefore it has been taking inconsistent and hypocritical steps. The decision to allow East Jerusalem residents to participate in the PA elections is part of this same duality. East Jerusalem's residents live here, vote for the PA and are citizens of Jordan. Instead of removing Palestinian parliamentarians from the eastern part of the city, it would be better to remove East Jerusalem from the State of Israel and transfer it to the Palestinian Authority.

So, if Israel is hypocritical, we must punish ourselves!

In Ha'aretz' world, a Jewish-majority state is desirable, but Judaism is not. (Talk about hypocrisy!) The ideal Israel would be a clone of Delaware, or perhaps Duba'i. The Jerusalem that we've cried over for two thousand years is just a bit of worthless real estate.

I would suggest that Ha'aretz' editors just stop being wishy-washy and convert to Islam already, but Muslims would not be interested in anyone with so little attachment to any belief system.

(Interestingly, since it is apparent that al-Ha'aretz' Judaism is purely ethnic and not religious, the desire to disengage from Arabs really does smack of racism. So I predict that as soon as they realize this, they will be writing editorials advocating the right of return for all Palestinian Arabs and the renaming of Israel to Falashtin. Otherwise, they'd be guilty of the hypocrisy they pretend to be so concerned about.)

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United Press on the Palestinian Arab refugee problem, 1948

I have written previously about the origins of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem, talking specifically about the Arabs of Haifa and the Mufti's interest in creating and perpetuating the problem. I started tackling the Palestine Post sources on the birth of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem of 1948. It is actually a huge amount of research, but I found today an interesting article that was published in the Palestine Post but was written for United Press (now UPI).

The author's thesis is that Israel was using the Arab refugees as a bargaining chip in getting Jews out of Arab countries. Of course, this never happened, so the author's analysis is wrong, but the facts that he mentions surrounding the Arab refugees seem to be on target.


United Press' Robert Miller says explicitly that the Jews bent over backwards to stop the Arabs from fleeing ("the greatest concessions were made to the Arabs if they would remain in Jewish territory...The Arabs refused to listen.")

And then, he says that Israel started encouraging the Arabs to flee (he got the reasons wrong, as mentioned above.) But what is the worst that the Jews did?

"They pointed out that the Arabs were welcome to remain, but that the Jews couldn't furnish food. The Jews offered to provide trucks to take the Arabs to the front lines."
Here is the Israeli crime, as of August 1948: telling Arabs that if they wanted to leave, they would help them.

The article does not spell out why the Arabs left, whether it was out of fear or because they were encouraged to, but it does say explicitly that Jews did not force Arabs out of their homes. Not that this never happened - in the course of a war bad things happen and things are always a lot more muddled while they are happening. But so far I have found no contemporaneous evidence of it, although there were plenty of accusations to that effect by the Arab leaders at the time as they tried to demonize the Jews while they grappled with the undeniably huge refugee problem that was dropped on the doorsteps of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Interestingly, Saudi Arabia refused to accept any Arab refugees, claiming that they had no money for them, but offered to pay for fighting Jews:

See also Palestinian Media Watch where real Palestinian Arabs admit what happened in 1948.

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Ask Sheikha!

One of the funniest sections of Aljazeerah.com is where readers write hilarious rants about Israel or America to Sheikha and Dr. Kareem, and Sheikha agrees wholeheartedly.

If you are looking for a laugh, here are some of the recent headlines (almost all end with exclamation points). They encourage responses, too...

	Zionists own Western Media!
	The Israeli constitution is based on Immoral and impractical concept!
	If the U.S. “democracy” is so great; then why are thousands dying to stop it from spreading in Iraq?!
	Non-proliferation must be universal!
	Why was Olmert in the U.S.?
	The Da Vinci Code must be pulled out from all cinemas!
	If we believed that the new government is a credible one, then we must believe all Bush’s lies about justifying the war!
	A Third Intifada?
	Watch out! You’re being spied on!
	What is it that the Ummah of Islam really needs?
	Since when has Mr. Bush become a prosecutor, judge and a witness at the same time?!
	The U.S. chose to side with the Israelis, the stronger party, instead of saving the victims!
	Do Muslim women practice their rights fully?
	America is resorting to tactics used by its 19th Century gangs!
	The Muslims’ pioneering innovations touched every dimension of Western life!

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Palestinian Arab capitalism

How mature people handle stock losses:

At approximately 01:00 on Friday, 26 May 2006, unknown gunmen fired shots at the Palestinian Stock Exchange located in the Qasr Hotel building, in the Rafedia Quarter of western Nablus. The attack caused material damage to the exchange. Sources from the stock exchange indicated that the attack was motivated by losses incurred by some individuals, due to the decline in stocks of some companies.

I'm sure that Palestinian Arab stocks skyrocketed right after the gunfire.

Sounds like they're ready for statehood! After all - they deserve it!

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BBC lauds Hamas humanitarian work

The BBC has an amazing article online now about the release of a British Hamas supporter.

Israel has ordered a British aid worker to leave the country, accusing him of backing a militant group.

Ayaz Ali, 36, originally from Bradford, had been held in a top security Israeli prison for three weeks without charge.

Mr Ali, who worked in Gaza for Islamic Relief, was freed on Monday and given seven days to leave Israel.

Israel had accused Mr Ali of helping groups linked to Hamas. Islamic Relief, which is Birmingham-based, said his release was a relief to aid workers.

Hamas, which is the ruling Palestinian party, runs an extensive network of social services including kindergartens and clinics.

• 'Great relief'

But it is considered by the Israeli government to be a terrorist organisation.

Islamic Relief's president Dr Hany El Banna OBE said: "I am glad that this whole situation has come to an end.

"It is a great relief to Ayaz's family, humanitarian workers all over the world and Islamic Relief.

"We are grateful to all those individuals, international NGOs and the UK government who helped secure Ayaz's release."

So the BBC, clearly sympathetic to Mr. Ayaz, highlights Hamas' "social services" and "kindergartens and clinics"; starts a new section of the story, and then mentions as an afterthought that Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

They give specifics on Hamas' social work, but any specific examples of terror are left unwritten - in fact, the implication is that only Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization, while the rest of the enlightened world knows that Hamas is a humanitarian network of charities and hospitals.

The BBC also fails to mention that Islamic Relief has been accused of terror ties itself. Russia accused it of supporting Chechnyan terror groups; they seem to have accepted money from Al-Qaeda front groups, and their "orphans" are often the children of terrorists, allowing Islamic Relief to reward terror.

In other words, any facts or background information that may indicate that Ayaz is in fact a terror supporter are completely ignored, and anything that makes him look like an innocent aid worker and victim of unwarranted Israeli aggression is highlighted.

Hat tip to Judeopundit

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Advice for NATFHE

The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in Britain voted to urge their members to boycott all Israeli academic researchers and institutions, unless they publicly disavow supporting Israel's policies.

It's OK by me if the state of British academic research is so strong that they can afford to ignore all research coming out of Israel. But I think if they really care about the Palestinian Arabs, they should make the boycott much broader.

For example, using Intel Pentium 4 and Centrino/Pentium M chips in their computers should be strictly forbidden. THey were designed in Israel, and many of the Israeli researchers came from academic backgrounds.

Similarly, Windows XP was mostly designed in Israel, so they should really boycott that entire OS.

But such sacrifices should be a small price to pay for their principles. Boycotting Israel, and not, say, Iran, shows that these academics have strong principles indeed. So as they throw their cell phones using Motorola technology developed in Israel into the Thames, I will cheer them on.

Until that happens, one must assume that they are hypocritical anti-semites.

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AP vs. Reuters photographers

Something interesting happened in the world of wire services yesterday.

Palestinian Arab terrorists planned to shoot their daily rocket barrage into Israeli villages, but the IDF was waiting for them. Between the gun battle and the helicopter missile, four of the bad guys ended up dead, rather than the kindergarteners they were aiming at.

AP was at the scene shortly after the terrorists got their just reward. The AP photographer shot a series of pictures showing the dead subhumans right next to their rocket launchers:

A Palestinian militant lies dead next to a homemade rocket prepared to be fired into Israel after he was killed by Israeli army gunfire in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday May 30, 2006. An Israel Air Force helicopter fired also a missile after the gunfight. At least three militants were killed and four other people were injured during the two attacks, Palestinian security and hospital officials said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Reuters, alas, missed the opportunity to take similar photos. (A charitable explanation.)

But apprently to make up for missing the story, Reuters rushed to the hospitals in Gaza to show - what else - grieving relatives:

A Palestinian woman cries in a hospital in north Gaza Strip May 30, 2006. An Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile during a gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday night, killing three and causing several casualties, local witnesses said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

No mention of Kassam rockets at all! Only the poor, mourning Arabs, who died in a gunbattle with the cold, unfeeling IDF.

Considering Reuters' stated editorial policy...

Reuters news operations are based on the company's Trust Principles which stipulate that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters must be upheld at all times.

Which wire service showed more integrity in covering this story?

UPDATE: BackSpin looks at this from a completely different angle. Also, see AbbaGav's take on the AP picture.

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Just in case you thought NGOs were unbiased...

Three-day conference of European NGOs calls for a total boycott of Israel

GENEVA, May 29 (KUNA) -- The European Coordination Committee of Associations for Palestine, called for a boycott of Israel including sanctions and halting of investments. At the end of a 3-day conference Sunday the ECCAP applauded the mobilization of public opinion aimed at convincing governments and the International Community to exert its pressure on Israel to abide with its international obligations, as an occupying power, in conformity with international law.

Fund terrorists and boycott Jews. What a great bunch of people for governments to send their money to!

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May 29, 1939: Palestine at the World's Fair

In May, 1939, Britain issued the infamous White Paper which overturned previous British policies of partitioning Palestine into two separate Jewish and Arab states. The White Paper itself is a remarkable read, as it shows the mindset of capitulating to Arab terror clearly, as well as the implicit idea that since Jews don't make as much trouble as Arabs, it is better to capitulate to Arab demands at the expense of Jewish lives.

The White Paper limited Jewish immigration for the entirely absurd reason that Palestine could not possibly economically support so many people without impacting the existing population - even as it admits that the Jews that immigrated so far has had no problems integrating and growing the economy. It is a wonder that the population of the area is increased many times over since then and yet somehow Israel hs a better economy than its more-roomy neighbors. Imagine that.

The White Paper also infamously capitulated to the Arab demands that Arab land sales to Jews be limited, in an amazing bit of enshrined political bigotry.

Unsurprisingly, the White Paper does not address the huge amount of illegal Arab immigration into the country. Only Jews are deemed a threat to the area.

In reality, of course, the reason is more clearly indicated here:

The lamentable disturbances of the past three years are only the latest and most sustained manifestation of this intense Arab apprehension [...] it cannot be denied that fear of indefinite Jewish immigration is widespread amongst the Arab population and that this fear has made possible disturbances which have given a serious setback to economic progress, depleted the Palestine exchequer, rendered life and property insecure, and produced a bitterness between the Arab and Jewish populations which is deplorable between citizens of the same country. If in these circumstances immigration is continued up to the economic absorptive capacity of the country, regardless of all other considerations, a fatal enmity between the two peoples will be perpetuated, and the situation in Palestine may become a permanent source of friction amongst all peoples in the Near and Middle East.

In other words, Arabs riot and murder and rampage when Jews move in, so if we have a choice of saving millions of Jews from certain death in Europe or upsetting Arabs who are quick to riot, it is much better to let the Jews die. Jews don't make as much trouble.

The fact that Palestine's economy was almost entirely the result of Jewish immigration is ignored. Economic reasons are the fig leaf of British fears of Arab terror, and Arabs then as now used terror to manipulate Western fears and policies, something I recently called the diplomacy of fear.

Against this backdrop. the World's Fair opened up in New York. The official British government of Palestine had no interest in exhibiting there, so the Jews of Palestine created their own exhibit. It is instructive to read Chaim Weizman's radio speech to the attendees, as it lays out the Jewish reaction to the bigoted and ultimately genocide-friendly White Paper. He makes the points that while the White Paper is immoral, it will not stop the ultimate rebirth of a Jewish state, that it was Jewish sweat that built Palestine up from an ignored slum to a major player in the Middle East.

Notice also Chief Rabbi Yitzchok Herzog's address, which was written before the White Paper, emphasizing how the Jewish return to Palestine has ecomonically benefited their Arab neighbors. Rather than talking about displacement and colonization, as is commonly charged nowadays, the Jewish leadership of Palestine always and consistently spoke of a win-win situation where Arabs and Jews both prosper.

The Arab leaders always pretended that Palestine was a zero-sum game, and the British White Paper codified that thinking. The Jews and the facts bore out a completely opposite conclusion - Palestine could and did turn into an economic powerhouse, benefiting hundreds of thousands of ordinary Arabs who moved in to take advantage of the Jewish-built economy.

Then, as now, outsiders pretend that they know the best solution to the Jewish "problem", and they come up with sometimes well-meaning plans to solve this problem. And then, as now, if their ideas end up accidentally resulting in the mass murder of Jews, they can say "oops - but we meant well."

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Ahmadinejad's DNA, redux

I noticed today that Hyscience has linked to my scholarly debate of whether Ahmadinejad is a chimp or an ape.

On a related thread at Israellycool, someone named Woland pointed out this great picture that sheds light on the topic:

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A proud member of the International Zionist Web

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that the "international Zionist web" was trying to keep him from visiting Germany for the World Cup soccer match.

Well, this is flattering. Considering that ZOG and the Worldwide Zionist Conspiracy and the dreaded Israel Lobby get all the good press, my own Web division of the Elders has been keeping low-key.

But now that Ahmadenijaddio has blown the lid on the IZW, I have to 'fess up. I'm one of the founders of the IZW, and I even designed the logo with super-secret ancient Hebrew writing:

Now that we are "outed" you will be seeing a lot more from us, as we continue in our never-ending plan to ensnare evil goyim in our web.

If you want to join the IZW, just place the logo from my sidebar on your blog and link to this posting, and I will add you to the Conspiracy!

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Haveil Havalim #71 - and the hits just keep on coming

WestBankMama at WestBankBlog hosts this week's Haveil Havalim #71, listing notable posts from the J-Blogosphere.

As usual, I dislike self-nominating, so I am honored that two of my posts are listed: Old Jerusalem and the post about the Americans killed by the terrorist Israel arrested last week (also linked by BackSpin.)

And of course it includes many good articles that I didn't notice the first time around, so check it out!

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Lebanese-Americans publicly support Hezbollah

The Arab American News, a newspaper in Dearborn, Michigan, covered a "Liberation Day" rally that Detroit suburb last Thursday night, celebrating Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon (they call it a military defeat.) The rally organizers stressed that they are loyal Americans - and that they support Hezbollah against Israel:

The speakers stressed the importance of remembering the community’s victories, and the need to stay brave in the face of intimidation against expressing support for movements of justice and liberation. Osama Siblani, AAPAC president and publisher of The Arab American News; Abed Hammoud, President of CAAO; and Consul General of Lebanon, Dr. Ali Ajami, were adamant about the need to make it clear to American policy makers that the Lebanese are very loyal to America and its people despite having strong objections to the hypocrisy in the U.S.’ policy towards Lebanon and its one-sided support for Israel.

The speakers insisted that the Lebanese American community’s support for the resistance in Southern Lebanon and their opposition to the crimes of the state of Israel do not, in any way, detract from their loyalty to America.

Osama Siblani said “I have never been to the South of Lebanon until my recent trip earlier this month. I went from Beirut all the way to the border in the South. I want all of the American officials to know that I did not see a single person with a firearm from Beirut all the way to the border, except at one Lebanese Army checkpoint. What I have seen calls for us to be proud: people living their lives, smoking the water pipe, playing cards, watching their kids play on both sides of the border without threat! So why are you calling Hizbullah a terrorist organization, and why do you want to take their arms? I didn’t see any arms.”

The Lebanese Consul General in Detroit, Dr. Ali Ajami, gave brief remarks in English and Arabic. Responding to the Lebanese government’s deletion of Liberation Day as a national holiday he said “If they don’t want to celebrate liberation there, I will celebrate it here!” He also said that the resistance in Lebanon was to be celebrated and that it was a natural reaction of any people to occupation, threat and aggression. Ajami said “We did what any simple man would do. If your house is invaded you have to know what should be done, drive them out of your house. We are no terrorists, we are simple people trying to live in peace … yes I would agree both of us, Lebanese and Israelis, want peace, we want peace, p-e-a-c-e, and they want piece, p-i-e-c-e, a piece of our land!”

They glossed over the fact that their heroes killed 241 American servicemen in October 1983 and 17 in April, 1983. In fact:

Using names like the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization, Hezbollah is also believed by the United States to have kidnapped and tortured to death[11] U.S. Marine Colonel William R. Higgins and the CIA Station Chief in Beirut, William Buckley, and to have kidnapped around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including the American journalist Terry Anderson, British journalist John McCarthy, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Terry Waite and Irish citizen Brian Keenan. Hezbollah was accused by the US government of being responsible for the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63; of being behind the suicide truck bombings that killed 241 U.S. Marines in their barracks in Beirut in October 1983; of bombing the replacement U.S. Embassy in East Beirut on September 20, 1984, killing 20 Lebanese and two American soldiers; and of carrying out the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome. Hezbollah denies involvement in these attacks and no evidence has come forth since.

No dual-loyalty there....just "loyal" Americans who support terrorists and would-be genocidal murderers who scream "Death to America!" at every opportunity.

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News roundup

For some reason, today's Daily Alert is filled with a huge number of links to great stories, and I don't have enough time to dedicate separate posts to each like I would like to. Here are some highlights:

A preview of how Hamastan would be:

Zarqawi Backers Lay Down Sharia Rules - Sharon Behn (Washington Times)
Imams loyal to terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi have issued threats in mosques in a western Baghdad neighborhood against anyone who does not follow Islamic law, terrified residents are saying.
Zarqawi supporters reportedly killed six men for wearing knee-length shorts in another Baghdad neighborhood on Tuesday, despite the 106-degree weather.
Other rules laid down by the Zarqawi supporters forbid men from wearing orange or red clothes or using gel in their hair. Women no longer are allowed to work, and girls cannot study.

This sounds like some "peace activists" are trying to provoke Israel into killing some of the people they pretend to defend, in order to get some good video:

Palestinians Testing Gaza Fence Security - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
Around 20 Palestinian arrived at the Gaza border fence on Sunday near Kibbutz Nir Am. They crossed one fence and approached the electronic sensor fence.
Despite requests by soldiers, the Palestinians refused to leave the area and began rioting. In an attempt to disperse the rioters, IDF soldiers fired in the air, but the Palestinians did not disperse.
One of the Palestinians approached the fence, and in response soldiers fired at his legs.
Last Wednesday, a few dozen Palestinians arrived at the border in northern Gaza, burned tires, threw rocks, and even climbed the electronic fence.
Attempts by the IDF to disperse the rioters by firing in the air failed, and eventually the soldiers fired at their legs.

Just like "peace activists", NGOs need to be monitored:

European NGOs Against Israel - Interview with Gerald Steinberg (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Many in European politics, academia, the media, and the NGOs use almost identical semantics. These four elements of society parallel each other, and work together as well, reinforcing each other in the overall attack on Israel.
The key anti-Israeli policies are emphasized by powerful European NGOs.

Another small victory in the battle against dependence on Arab oil:

Trash Treatment Plant Makes Clean Energy - Leah Krauss (UPI)
ArrowBio Waste Management Technologies' on-site generator just outside Tel Aviv is powered by biogas, the rich methane gas mixture released when organic trash decomposes.
About 25% of this energy goes to power the machinery at the site. The other 75% of the non-polluting power goes back onto the national grid, and the Israel Electric Corp. credits the company for it.
With rising oil prices and a growing concern for the environment, Israel, like other countries all over the world, is making a push to rely on more sources of alternative energy.

An American Righteous Gentile from WWII:

New Stamp To Honor U.S. Envoy in WWII Who Helped Jews Escape - Christopher Lee
66 years ago, Hiram Bingham IV, a blue-blood American diplomat in France, defied U.S. policy by helping Jews escape the Nazis in the early years of World War II. Bingham's actions cost him his Foreign Service career but won him the undying gratitude of the more than 2,000 refugees he helped save by issuing them travel visas and false passports, and even at times sheltering them in his home. The Yale-educated son of a former U.S. senator, Bingham died in 1988 at age 84. His own children did not learn the extent of his wartime deeds until 1996, when a son found a cache of old journals and correspondence stashed in a hidden closet in the family's Connecticut home. The U.S. Postal Service issues a stamp next Wednesday in his honor. (Washington Post)

A very long and incredible article about a woman who fights terror on the Internet:

Private Jihad - Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Rita Katz, who was born in Iraq and speaks fluent Arabic, spends hours each day monitoring the password-protected online chat rooms in which Islamic terrorists discuss politics and trade tips: how to disperse botulinum toxin or transfer funds, which suicide vests work best. Katz, who is the head of the Search for International Terrorist Entities, or SITE Institute, and her researchers mine online sources for intelligence. She has worked with prosecutors on more than a dozen terrorism investigations, and many American officers in Iraq rely on Katz's e-mails to brief their troops on the designs for explosives that are passed around terrorist websites. (New Yorker)

Despite everything, Israel's economy is booming:

Israel's Economy Leaving Palestinians Far Behind - Joshua Mitnick
At a time when the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza are teetering on the brink of a collapse, Israeli growth - with a 6.6% GDP rise in the first quarter of 2006 - has returned to the torrid pace set before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. It's also a recognition of a growing separation between the Israeli and Palestinian economies. Per-capita income - a measure of the standard of living - is 17 times higher in Israel than among its neighbors from the West Bank and Gaza. Now the possibility of full economic disengagement looms. (Christian Science Monitor)
See also Israeli Business Sector Shines Despite Dangers - Abraham Rabinovich
Sever Plotzker, economics editor of the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, noted that Israel's business-sector GDP growth rate of 10.6% outpaced even China's, as did the industrial sector's 27% annualized growth. (Washington Times)

And more:

Syrian Subversion by Proxy - Editorial
Syria continues to occupy the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Lebanese who visited the Bekaa several weeks ago said they saw Syrian military forces on Lebanese territory. Last week, the Lebanese Army clashed with members of Fatah Uprising, a Palestinian rejectionist group based in Damascus. After the fighting began, Palestinians based in Syria sent 50 fighters, as well as trucks, jeeps, and an anti-aircraft gun, across the border to aid the Fatah group in combating the Lebanese Army. Syria, in short, is subverting Lebanon by proxy. (Washington Times)

The Protocols, 21st Century-Style - Benjamin Neuberger
Another academic boycott of Israel is being organized in Britain. The organizers are not a majority but clearly rather a small minority. However, there are no initiatives for boycotts against other countries: not against Iran, which is denying the Holocaust and threatening to destroy Israel; not against Sudan, which is committing genocide in Darfur; not against Saudi Arabia, where people are executed for religious infractions; and not against China, which is carrying out oppression in Tibet and Shenzhen. Nor is the hated United States being boycotted.
When I was on sabbatical at Oxford University in 2003-2005, I was astonished to see how many professors and students identified Zionism with racism, imperialism, and colonialism. In these circles there is no understanding at all of the Jewish history of pogroms, persecution, and deportations, or of the meaning of the Holocaust. They do not know, and they do not want to know, that we have historical roots in this country, that our language is non-European, that half of the Jews in Israel did not come from Europe, that those who did come from Europe were considered alien and shunned "Semites" there, and that the Zionists had no colonialist mother country. The writer is a professor of political science at the Open University. (Ha'aretz)
See also Stop the British Academic Boycott of Israel - Colin Shindler
The writer lectures in Israeli Studies at the University of London. (Jerusalem Post)

Egyptian-Italian Journalist: Hamas Terror Is Not a Reaction to Occupation - Assaf Uni
"Israel's right to exist is today the international criterion for distinguishing between the terrorist camp and the camp of life," says Magdi Allam, the Egyptian-Italian journalist and writer who is now visiting Israel. "On one side, there is the Hamas government, Iran, fundamentalist Islam and even parts of the extreme left and right in Europe." On the other side, he says, are Western countries and "supporters of the right to live." The West, he believes, does not understand that it is under attack, and is trying to conduct a dialogue with the Muslims attacking it. Allam, 54, immigrated to Italy some 30 years ago and is today the deputy editor of Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest newspaper. (Ha'aretz)

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California upholds Islamic indoctriniation in public schools

Unbelievable.

In our brave new schools, Johnny can't say the pledge, but he can recite the Quran. Yup, the same court that found the phrase "under God" unconstitutional now endorses Islamic catechism in public school.

In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it's OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

• Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . ."

• Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."
• Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.
• Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."
• Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
• Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic lessons as part of California's world history curriculum, sued under the First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably, that the government was promoting Islam.

But a federal judge appointed by President Clinton told them in so many words to get over it, that the state was merely teaching kids about another "culture."

So the parents appealed. Unfortunately, the most left-wing court in the land got their case. The 9th Circuit, which previously ruled in favor of an atheist who filed suit against the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, upheld the lower court ruling.

The decision is a major victory for the multiculturalists and Islamic apologists in California and across the country who've never met a culture or religion they didn't like — with the exception of Western civilization and Christianity. They are legally in the clear to indoctrinate kids into the "peaceful" and "tolerant" religion of Islam, while continuing to denigrate Judeo-Christian values.

In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented equally. It's covered in just two days and doesn't involve kids in any role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is presented as an "internal personal struggle to do one's best to resist temptation," and not holy war.

The ed consultant's name is Susan L. Douglass. No, she's not a Christian scholar. She's a devout Muslim activist on the Saudi government payroll, according to an investigation by Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington." He found that for years Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy just outside Washington, D.C. Her husband still teaches there.

So what? By infiltrating our public school system, the Saudis hope to make Islam more widely accepted while converting impressionable American youth to their radical cause. Recall that John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," was a product of the California school system. What's next, field trips to Mecca?

This case is critical not just to our culture but our national security. It should be brought before the Supreme Court, which has outlawed prayer in school. Let's see what it says about practicing Islam in class. It will be a good test for the bench's two new conservative justices.

Keep in mind that, according to Islam, simply saying the words "There is no God except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." is enough to make you a Muslim. So California has just allowed more than just teaching about Islam - it has sanctioned the mass conversion of public school children to a different religion.

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Blowing up children, if necessary

The AP has an interesting description of the Iranian suicide bomb celebration yesterday:

TEHRAN, Iran -- Under a banner showing coffins draped with American, British and Israeli flags, more than 100 Iranian men and women pledged Thursday to become suicide bombers - if necessary - to defend their country and Islam.

Has there ever been a sentence that needed scare quotes more than this one?

Yet AP plays it straight. It is almost as if they believe that blowing up women and children, on purpose, thousands of miles away from your country, is sometimes a necessary part of defending your land or your religion.

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Hamas ends up with smuggled money anyway

Remember last week when Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle over $800,000 into Gaza?

Well, the European monitors confiscated the money. Abbas demanded the money so he could launch a full investigation. And now...Hamas is using it to buy weapons for its terror gangs.

The EU is strangely silent about their complicity in this crime. Perhaps their job at the border crossing is to ensure that RPGs and Katyushas have been built by companies that adhere to the Zionist boycott.

Some 640,000 Euros confiscated from a Hamas smuggler at Rafiach crossing last week have been given to the Hamas Authority. Some of it will pay for a militia manned by Izaddin Al-Kassam terrorists.

The cash, the equivalent of some $820,000, was discovered in the baggage of the Hamas spokesman as he made his way into Gaza from Egypt. European Union inspectors confiscated the money, which was over 400 times more than the amount permitted without declaration. A band of Hamas gunmen arrived on the scene demanding the return of the money, but they were soon dispersed.

PA Chairman Abu Mazen ordered the money transferred to the prosecution offices of the PA, and demanded an investigation into the Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhari, and his activities.

However, Abu Zuhari said this week that the money had in fact been officially given to the PA's interior minister on May 22. Speaking with the official Hamas publication, Abu Zuhari promised that the donations would reach their "correct destinations."

Earlier this week, PA affairs correspondent Dalit HaLevy reports, Hamas Authority officials said that economic aid would be partially used to pay for the interior ministry's special security force. Members of the force were recruited from the Popular Resistance Committees and Izaddin Al-Kassam terrorist groups.

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